thomasshahan

(The Daily Critter: You come for the photography, and you stay for the banal greetings.)

For a change, I thought that I might share a couple of videos with all of you today. None of them by me, let me add. The first is a really funny Ricky Gervais video on spiders. (Warning: lots of profanity)

The second, much longer video is one by Thomas Shahan, an amazing macro photographer with some bewitching photographs of jumping spiders, who’s even gone on NBC’s The Today Show. Crazy, huh – The amount of glamour a bug photographer can get in the states?

It’s a really nice video about how the magic happens. He articulates the process of finding and photographing critters a lot better than I can.

When you’re out looking for arthropods it’s a good idea to relax and take your time, things may not come easy – you may go days or weeks or months without taking a good photograph…

Most importantly, get to know arthropod behaviour, you’ll see how certain bugs find purchase, how close you can approach some of them,

…equipment doesn’t matter, and neither does talent, to some extent: It’s about perseverance, persistance and most of all: the sheer volume of shots taken…

That may not sound as glamorous as you might’ve imagined, but there you have it. Paraphrasing Andrew Zuckerman, creativity is curiosity mixed with rigour, and when that combination is just right, you have something truly special.